


Oblivious

by ticklishraspberries



Category: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Tickling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29853738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ticklishraspberries/pseuds/ticklishraspberries
Summary: Dante has no idea what his gentle signs of affection do to Ari.
Relationships: Aristotle Mendoza/Dante Quintana
Kudos: 23





	Oblivious

**Author's Note:**

> i’m re-uploading some of my old fics from tumblr here onto ao3. i know this isn’t my best work and i’m no longer active in this fandom, so let’s just pretend i posted it when i actually wrote it, mkay?

It took a long time for Ari to get used to intimacy, but Dante was patient. They took it slow, and brushing shoulders and knees eventually turned to arms wrapping around shoulders and hands resting on knees. Kisses travelled from simply lips to cheeks and foreheads and necks and hands. Fingers laced together and traced patterns over skin. And they could talk for hours about anything and everything, each topic baring more and more of their souls to each other, slowly and subtly, but surely.

The craziest thing about it all was, Ari wasn’t scared. He’d gotten past shame a long time ago; that wasn’t the issue. But he had been spent so long building strong walls around him, and it was hard to watch them be demolished every time Dante touched him. But he liked it. He liked letting loose and feeling truly… _happy_ for the first time in forever. It was cheesy, sure, but Ari didn’t care.

But Dante was still struggling with reading Ari, something Ari had made sure of in the past and was finding hard to drop. All he wanted was for Dante to see what was right in front of him.

Hands resting on knees made muscles tense and kisses on necks made him twitch away, but it wasn’t enough for Dante to catch on. If he would touch him a little harder, or in a more sensitive spot, he would notice, but he just _wouldn’t._ Every time he came close to letting out a giggle, Dante would move his hands away, and it was absolutely maddening. And it wasn’t like he could admit it. Something about saying it…the thought of it made his skin crawl in an oddly not-so-unpleasant way. It was just two words: _’That tickles.’_ But he just couldn’t. Dante just really needed to hurry up and catch on.

Dante was tracing shapes into the skin of his inner arm, the two of them lying sprawled across Ari’s bed in quiet contentedness. It set his nerves alight, but not enough to force a strong enough reaction; not enough for Dante to notice that it tickled.

Ari huffed, pulling his arm away from the light touches. He was being stupid, yeah, but he didn’t care. He wanted Dante to do what he’d been hoping he’d do for months now, and if he was going to have to egg him on, he was not above doing so.

“What’s wrong?” Dante asked, looking over at him with furrowed brows.

“Nothing,” Ari replied shortly.

“You’ve been acting weird,” Dante stated. Maybe he was better at reading him than Ari thought.

He shrugged. “Have I?”

“Yes. Are you uncomfortable with me touching you, or-?”

“No. The opposite actually.”

“What do you mean?”

Ari blushed. “Well…I mean, you could touch me a little more. I just…like it when you do.” God, he felt ridiculous saying it. Dante however wasn’t laughing at him; he was smiling. Not in a condescending way, as if he were making fun of him, but like he’d just been told some fantastic news. “Really?” Ari nodded, and before he could even blink, Dante was pressed against him, wrapping an arm around his waist. “Is that better?” he asked.

Ari shrugged.

Dante grinned, throwing his leg over Ari’s and pressing them even closer together. “Better?”

Ari, smirking himself, hummed before shaking his head.

Dante quickly moved, sitting up and straddling Ari’s waist, grabbing his wrists and bending down to kiss him. “How’s that?” he asked smoothly after he’d pulled away.

“Better,” Ari replied breathlessly, feeling his face burning. “Kiss me again?”

Dante was more than happy to oblige. They kissed and kissed, and soon hands began to wander as they got lost in the moment. Dante released Ari’s wrists to hold onto his shoulders, and Ari’s newly freed hands rested on Dante’s hips. Ari had basically forgotten his original motive in challenging Dante, until-

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Did you just…giggle?”

“…No.”

“You just giggled,” Dante stated, looking like a child on Christmas morning.

“I didn’t,” Ari insisted, but instantly contradicted himself as Dante repeated the action- running his fingers down the sides of Ari’s stomach- and he giggled yet again.

“I _knew_ you had to be ticklish, but you never laughed when I tried to find out!” Dante exclaimed, now doing the same motion over and over, picking up the pace and making Ari’s giggles get harder and louder. “I guess you just suck at tickling,” Ari choked out, unable to resist challenging him.

Dante’s eyebrows raised and his mouth twisted into a mischievous looking grin that almost made Ari melt on the spot. “Oh, _really?_ Well, if I’m so bad at it, I guess it won’t bother you if I keep going then?” he asked, in a sugary-sweet and falsely-innocent voice.

Ari shrugged, at a loss for a verbal response to the question. He was going to regret this, wasn’t he? Dante’s fingers were fast and ruthless, scribbling down Ari’s sides and darting beneath his shirt to tickle every inch of skin they could reach, and Ari was laughing harder than he could remember ever laughing before. When he wanted Dante to tickle him, this wasn’t exactly how he’d pictured it; it was _better_.

“Dahante!”

“Yes?”

“Please!”

“Please what? Keep tickling you? Of course!”

Ari couldn’t even protest as he dissolved into a new wave of laughter as Dante squeezed at his hips; not that he really _wanted_ to protest anyway.

But eventually he needed to breathe, and Dante stopped just as he was about to beg for mercy. Dante really did know how to read him, at least, when it came to certain things.

“You’re absolutely adorable,” Dante said, laying back down beside Ari, for some reason seeming breathless himself.

“Shut up,” Ari replied.

As the two of them lied there, panting, their hands found each other, fingers intertwining comfortably. Neither of them needed to confess how much they’d loved that, it was far too apparent in the smiles that stayed on their faces for the rest of the night. Oh, and the fact that Dante did the same thing the following morning. They had both been pretty oblivious at first, but they were _definitely_ on the same page now.


End file.
